You Said We Were Meant To Be
by Light-Eco-Sage
Summary: The base part of Allura knew that she had every right to leave Prince Lotor in the rift after what he'd done to her and her people. But wasn't that thought letting herself become just as corrupted as anyone else who let themselves be overtaken by the rift? A LONG Lotura One Shot.


**You Said We Were Meant To Be**

**Rated for Teen for hinted at sexuality, romance, violence, space drama.  
**

**Pairing: Prince Lotor/Princess Allura**

**Summary: The base part of Allura knew that she had every right to leave Prince Lotor in the rift after what he'd done to her and her people. But wasn't that thought letting herself become just as corrupted as anyone else who let themselves be overtaken by the rift?**

**Disclaimer: _Voltron Legendary Defender_ is owned by Netflix and Dreamworks.**

* * *

**LES: Normally, I'm not the sort of person who multi-ships a character who has all ready been a part of a pairing, but as I was watching Seasons 5 and 6, I fell in love with some Lotura. I still like Shallura, sure, but I'm able to step back from it since it is pretty clear from the evidence that we have that Shiro is gay and not bi. Now, Lotura… it was there, and it got my old shipper heart beating again. Well… bad luck for me… it's still fanon despite almost becoming canon. Doesn't stop from feeling that the Lotura ending was contrived. Sure, show, just write an awesome character off as irredeemable without even giving him a chance to explain. So we're all supposed to just side with this new character we just met and believe her just because she's Altean? Just supposed to just sit back and watch as the coolest of cool cucumbers descends into a rabid madness? #JusticeForLotor**

**So to satisfy my shippers heart, here's some "fix it" Lotura.**

**EDIT: Note for FFnet readers. This story is shorter than the original version. Yeah, I know. I removed the sex scene from this version of the story. If you want the sex scene, then please travel over to my AO3 account under the username LightSage89 and you will find this story with the sex scene intact.**

* * *

All of the klaxon alarms inside Voltron were screaming, almost like the giant robot itself was in pain.

"We can't stay in here any longer!" Keith yelled over the intercoms. "Even Voltron can't handle this amount of quintessence!"

"I agree!" Lance agreed. "I don't like what this rift is doing to us." And all of the Paladins agreed with him. During the battle against Lotor inside the rift, the quintessence pulled out all of their baser instincts, making them all more vicious and violent.

Allura's eyes fell on the drifting ship that contained Lotor. "But we can't leave him in here!" She yelled back.

"We have no choice. Lotor made his." Keith said in return. The thrust on the Blue Lion activated without any input from Allura. All of the Paladins maintained autonomy with their lions while in Voltron, but as the head of Voltron, Keith still had some amount of ability to override the other Paladin's control, especially when they were not actively inputting commands. They began to fly away towards the opening of the rift as fast as they could.

But Allura could not stop thinking about Lotor. The last couple of hours had been an absolute hell, which made her feel all the worse because those hours had been preceded by some of the best times of her life. A part of her remembered the way that her heart skipped a beat as Lotor held her close to his body, the soft touch of his lips against hers. The soaring elation that they felt the same way about each other. But then everything had changed with the revelation of the Altean colony that Lotor was keeping in secret and performing some sort of horrible experiments on.

Her people, being held captive and tortured by a man that she allowed herself to trust… even allowed herself to fall in love with. A part of her remembered, and another part of her hated that she remembered.

The base part of her nature wanted to not care. It wanted to say quiznak to Lotor and all of the feelings that she had for him, to leave him in the rift to suffer the doom that he had brought upon himself.

But then she felt sick to her stomach for thinking it in the first place.

Her mind drifted back to Oriande, to the lessons that the White Lion had taught her. The secrets of life. What she had told the lion that day was the absolute truth, she came to learn the secrets of life, not of death. She would never intentionally hurt someone who was not an enemy. But was Lotor an enemy?

He had begged and pleaded with her before their fight, saying that his feelings for her were true. He had even said something about having an explanation for the colony while on the bridge of the Castle of Lions. But she had been too angry and hurt to listen. If she had listened to him, instead of body slamming him, could she have stopped all of this? Would Shiro have been taken? Would Lotor have resorted to such desperate measures? Would he have descended into such a terrifying madness?

"No." Allura said firmly. "If we leave him here, he'll die."

"Isn't that the point?" Lance asked.

Allura was no longer listening to the rest of the Paladins, but that ended up working out in her favor. Being joined into Voltron required a deep level of mental synchronization. When Allura broke off that connection, it separated Voltron out into the five lions. Allura was free to turn back.

"Allura! Come back!" Keith yelled over the intercom.

Allura didn't even take the time to turn off the intercom. They were right about one thing… she did not have a lot of time. Separating out into the lions had jettisoned some of the excess energy into the rift, but the lions lacked Voltron's overall resistance to the excess of the quintessence. She turned the lion around and flew deeper into the rift.

The Sincline ship came into view, utterly ruined in the battle with Voltron. A part of her was sad to see the ship's destruction, since she had literally filled it with her own quintessence over months, but another part of her was glad for it. Without the ship being partially destroyed, it would have been nearly impossible for a single Voltron lion to do the sort of damage that she was about to do with the ship.

There was no time for a gentle extraction, so Allura resorted to using her lion's metal claws to tear the Sincline's head off. Then she grabbed the head, leaving the rest of the dead weight of the ship to drift deeper into the rift. With her cargo clutched safely in the Blue Lion's claws, she turned and raced after the other Paladins towards the rift opening.

As soon as Keith saw that Allura was making her way back to the rift opening, he ordered everyone to leave the rift, which they did.

As soon as they were all free of the rift, Keith opened up a private channel between himself and the Blue Lion. "Why did you do that? You could have gotten yourself and the whole team killed."

"I had to." Allura answered. "I… I couldn't leave him to die in there like that."

Keith sighed in exasperation, but then when he met her gaze again, she could see the calmness about him. For the first time, Allura was truly aware of just how much he had grown over the time he had spent away. "I hope you know what you are doing." He said finally.

"Honestly, I hope I do too." Allura responded.

* * *

As soon as Allura set down the head of the Sincline and parked her lion in its hanger, she left the controls and the lion released her out into the larger Castle of Lions. She ran over to the ruined ship, hoping for any method of entry that she could find. There was a small passage, up through what used to be the giant robot's neck. She gave herself several cuts on the jagged metal as she squeezed through, but that hardly mattered.

She didn't know what to expect in the Sincline's cockpit, but it wasn't what she found. Maybe she expected a ranting and raving madman like he was during their battle. Maybe she even expected to find a dead body, despite all of her efforts.

He was unconscious. She could tell that he was still alive by the subtle movements of his chest. But he was nearly unrecognizable from the calm and collected Emperor that she had come to know. He looked like he had aged nearly a decade in the last hours, with several stress lines on his face that had not been there before and dark black circles under his sunken eyes. But his Altean marks were glowing brightly, something that she had not seen since Oriande.

Allura rushed forward, hoping that her new skills in Alchemy would be enough to purge the poisoned quintessence from his body, or at the very least be able to repair that damage that had been done to him before it was permanent. She moved up to the pilot's seat, kneeling on the ground next to him.

She placed her hands on each side of his face, closed her eyes, and focused her quintessence on his.

Almost immediately, Allura almost felt herself thrown across the cockpit by the sheer force of the quintessence within Lotor's body. The only living source of quintessence that she had to compare to the sheer amount of quintessence that he had was a living and healthy Balmera, perhaps even more than that.

She stared at him, shocked and a little disturbed. It felt horrible to her Alchemist's senses, but it still felt like _Lotor._ Whatever this was, it was a natural part of Lotor's being.

_Could this be the source of his functional immortality?_ Allura wondered to herself. Quintessence, after all, was the source of Zarkon's near immortality. And then an even bigger thought occurred to her.

Oriande. What would have happened if Lotor had succeeded and gained the knowledge of Altean Alchemy and the greater control over his own personal quintessence that came with that knowledge? Had he succeeded, he would have become, by far, the most powerful person… no, the most powerful _being_ in the entire universe. Perhaps he might have even found a way to shed away the last traces of his mortality and achieved apotheosis, to have become a true immortal and a god!

Now more prepared for the sheer amount of quintessence that his body contained, Allura placed her hands on the side of his face again. She could stand her metaphysical ground against the flood of quintessence from his body. But just the contact from it caused her own Altean markings to flare up.

She was looking for some kind of damage to his being from the quintessence, but to her shock, she couldn't manage to find any. From what she could tell, there was such a massive pool of quintessence in his body that the quintessence that had invaded his body from the rift during the battle was barely worth a drop in the ocean. There was some negative quintessence inside him, but she had known those who had more negative quintessence and were fine.

Allura pulled her hands away, her markings still glowing like stars in the darkness of the cockpit. "What happened to you?" She asked, not expecting an answer at all. And then she had to consider something that she had not wanted to consider since she pulled him out of the rift… that Lotor's behavior during the last battle had nothing to do with him being corrupted by quintessence… that this had all come from him.

"Allura! Allura, where are you?!" A panicked voice called from outside the ship's hull. With no faster way to get out, Allura stood up and pressed some of the buttons on the controls. The doors on the Sincline were not really designed to open up in giant robot form, but they responded to the touch of the Alchemist who designed it. With a horrible grinding noise, the metal opened up, giving Allura access to the outside. She picked up Lotor's unconscious form and leapt down to the bay floor. It was Keith who was calling for her. He eyed Lotor's unconscious body warily. "Is he dead?"

"He's alive, but..." Allura trailed off.

"Listen, Allura, we don't have a lot of time. Put him in a healing pod or in the brig… I'm leaving that up to you, but you have to hurry, whatever you pick. Something is very wrong and we are all in danger."

Allura quickly made her choice. There seemed to be nothing wrong with him physically, at least nothing that wouldn't heal on its own, and his quintessence seemed to be fine. So he wasn't in danger of dying. She decided to leave him in the brig for the moment.

"I'll see you on the bridge." Allura said, cradling Lotor's unconscious form in her arms as she made her way down the brig, the very same cell that had once held him. She laid him inside on the bed, and shut the cell behind her before she made her way up to the bridge once more.

It turned out that Lotor making multiple jumps between realities had torn many small holes into the fabric of space and time, and that those holes were combining, growing larger, and threatening the existence of everything on either side of the tears.

All of the Paladins were at a loss of what to do. Coran had even suggested sacrificing the Castle of Lions to close up the holes. But then Allura came up with the answer.

"We have the head of the Sincline ship in the Blue Lion hanger." She said. "That ship has the drive that allowed Lotor to jump between realities. If we are able to overload the trans-dimensional drive core, it should create an incident of sufficient mass to close the rift."

Everyone agreed with that plan, with the knowledge that they would do anything to stop the growth of this rift. If Allura's plan didn't work, they would all sacrifice the Castle of Lions in a tic.

The Paladins all made their way down to the Blue Lion hanger, and watched as Allura jumped into the cockpit and imputed the commands that would cause the trans-dimensional drive to overload within a couple of minutes. Before that time was over, Allura was in the Blue Lion, had delivered her payload into the rift, and was on her way back to the Castle. The Castle had retreated a safe distance, but still close enough that it was still in range to be sacrificed if Allura's plan didn't work. There was an enormous explosion as the drive core overloaded, and then everything was quiet. No growing rift… just empty space.

A part of her felt sad to lose the Sincline ship in its totality. She had literally poured her soul into it over the last several months. But it was a small price to pay for the safety of all the universes.

* * *

The next couple of days were so full that hardly anyone had time to deal with Lotor, not that he had even woken up. First, Allura had to rescue Shiro's spirit from the Black Lion and place his soul into the body of his clone. And then the soul was almost rejected and they came very close to losing Shiro again, but he thankfully was able to pull through. Shiro was better now, but it was pretty clear to everyone that he would never be able to pilot the Black Lion again. But it seemed that Keith was here to stay this time, so he took over the place of the Paladin of the Black Lion.

But Shiro was still wonderful for advice. It still freaked her out a little that most of the time she had spent with him was actually his clone, but when she thought about it, the real Shiro was a lot more supportive of her than the clone was. He had not lost this quality of himself.

So Allura was especially pleased when she finally made her way down to Lotor's cell, with the Emperor looking the same as usual, to find that Shiro was the one taking watch. Shiro only stared at the Emperor with curiosity. He did not have the experience with Lotor that the rest had.

"Good day, Shiro." Allura said, walking over to him. "Has there been any change?"

"I've only been here a couple of hours, and he seems to be just sleeping." Shiro said. "If I couldn't see his chest moving as he breathes, I would have sworn that he is dead." Allura walked up and stood next to Shiro. He seemed to be remarkably well for lacking an arm once more. They had plans to give him a new arm, but it had to wait until they were sure he was totally recovered, as it would require removing all of the Galra tech from his body. "The others told me that you risked your life and the destruction of Voltron in order to go back into the rift to save him."

"If you're going to ask why I did it..." Allura began.

"I don't need to ask why. I know that Pidge and Hunk can exaggerate, but I doubt that Lance and Coran would, especially about you having feelings for him."

"So the others told you?" She shouldn't be surprised. Her relationship with Lotor had been a talking point among the Paladins since before it was a romantic relationship. She would often look just past Lotor when they were talking to find either Pidge or Hunk making exaggerated kissy faces at her behind Lotor's back.

"Yes." Shiro responded simply.

"It must be really strange for you. When you left us, we are doing everything we could to stop the Galra empire, and when you come back we have been working with the Galran Emperor for months. Does it bother you that we trusted him?" Before Shiro could answer, Allura spoke again. "It has bothered me every day since that I trusted him. That I allowed him to manipulate me like this. That I allowed myself to think… that he… loved me."

"I don't think that there's anything wrong with falling in love, even if it… doesn't go the way you think it will." Shiro said, a little bit of sorrow creeping into his voice.

"Shiro?"

"Before I left Earth, on my mission when I got captured by the Galra… I left someone back on Earth. Adam didn't want me to go on the mission, but it was something that I had been working for my entire life. He told me that I had to choose either the mission or him. I… choose the mission."

"Do you regret…?" Allura began, before she stopped the question in its tracks. It was stupid to ask if Shiro regretted choosing the mission over his former lover. If he had stayed with this Adam, he never would have been captured and tortured by Zarkon. He could be happy on Earth right now with Adam if he never left.

Shiro laughed sourly, knowing was she was going to ask. "In hindsight, I regret it. But it's too late to change things now. Adam has probably moved on by now anyway. But I don't regret falling in love with him in the first place, even if our relationship ended poorly."

"Poorly is an understatement for what Lotor has done to me… to my people." Allura said.

"Well, I don't know the guy as well as you did." Shiro laughed lightly. "Actually, I don't know him at all."

"I don't know him at all either." Allura said under her breath, but Shiro still heard it.

"You've spent time with him. Besides, I don't ever want to condemn a helpless prisoner to death without due process ever again."

"Shiro, Sendak is..." Allura began.

"Ah. Isn't this a familiar sight?" A soft voice suddenly spoke up. Allura gave a small jump of fright, but Shiro only spun around in shock. Allura and Shiro were so deep in conversation that neither of them had noticed that Emperor Lotor had woken up and was carefully watching and listening to the two of them.

He was neither the raving lunatic that they had fought in the rift, nor the soft-eyed charmer that he was when he was luring in Allura. He simply watched them, his eyes cold and unreadable. "I must say, I'm rather surprised to see you standing there with the Black Paladin. After all, it seemed pretty clear to me that he has been working with my father's witch this whole time. Are you only so quick to forgive past transgressions when the offender lacks Galra blood?"

"You dare…!" Allura began, and then Shiro cut her off with a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Princess, you are being too emotional." Shiro told her firmly. Allura glared at him, and then backed away from the cell. Shiro turned his eyes on Lotor. "A lot has happened while you slept. The Black Paladin that you knew was not the real Shiro, but a clone of me made by Haggar. The clone is gone."

Lotor stared at him for a moment, as if trying to detect the lie in his eyes. Finally, he gave up with an unconcerned shrug. "I've lived a long time, and I've heard of stranger happenings. Especially where the witch is concerned. Tell me… where is the Sincline?"

Shiro glanced at Allura, who wordlessly gestured for him to answer. Shiro sighed. "During the… battle… you made several jumps between realities. Those jumps left tears in space-time that were growing at a rate that would consume and destroy the entire universe is a few doboshes. The Princess chose to to overload your ship's trans-dimensional drive inside the rift in order to close it. The Sincline is completely gone."

For the first time since Lotor had woken up, he seemed broken at the news. "What have you done…?" Lotor asked. "My life's work… everything I have ever planned for has been ripped away from me in a single varga." His expression shifted from shock to anger as he stood up, although he spoke with just as much poise as always. "If the Sincline is truly destroyed, then I will surrender myself to the judgment of the Coalition immediately."

Even Shiro was shocked by this statement. He glanced back at Allura, confused, and she seemed to be just as confused as he was. "Without a fight?" Shiro asked.

"What is the point of fighting? Everything has turned to ashes, for I doubt that I'll see another trans-dimensional comet even if I live another ten thousand deca-phoebes." Lotor said. "However, I do have one condition for my surrender."

"Which is…?" Shiro asked.

"For the Coalition to send every available medical transport to the location of the secondary Altean colony immediately. Everything has failed, and the processes need to be terminated immediately. They will be weak. They will need those medical transports back to the primary colony or to any other secured location."

"Are you only pretending to care now that you've seen how much your treatment of those innocent Alteans disgust me?" Allura asked with cold eyes.

Lotor met her eyes with eyes equally as cold. "And why should I explain myself to you now? You did not seem to be very interested in listening to what I had to say that day on the bridge. No. Instead you lashed out like the child you are, throwing a temper tantrum."

Allura punched the cell wall, but Lotor did not even flinch. "How dare you!" She growled. "You have enslaved and tortured my people and yet still think you stand above me? Insult me if you wish, though I promise that I will make you feel all of the pain they felt."

"Both of you, stop it!" Shiro yelled, standing between them. In Shiro's outsider opinion, both of the ten thousand year old aliens were behaving like children. "Allura, I would hear him out. Back on Earth, even our worst war criminals would be given the chance to defend themselves."

For a couple of tics, they were both silent, and then Lotor pulled himself up with dignity. "Any more interruptions, Princess?" He asked. Allura glared at him and then looked away. "My thanks to you, Black Paladin, for showing some sense."

Allura glared at him. "Just give us your defense, all ready!"

"As you wish, your Highness." Lotor said. "In hindsight, I will admit that I made a grave mistake in not informing you about the existence of the Altean colony as soon as I became the Emperor. The only excuse that I have to offer is a lifetime of learning how to keep secrets away from the witch Haggar. She has a spell that allows her to detect lies and secrets from others fairly easily. However, there is a limitation to her spell. It only allows her to see the surface thoughts, the thoughts that are consciously on your mind. When one lies, they normally cannot help but think about their lie, so she is able to catch them in the falsehood. If I had so much as thought about the Altean colony anywhere near Haggar, she would have instantly known about it. Therefore, to protect them, I trained myself to think about the colony as little as possible. I had gotten to the point when I could go a hundred deca-phoebes without the colony crossing my thoughts even once."

"I don't care so much about that." Allura said. "Yes, you made a mistake not telling me about the colony, but that's a mistake that I could have easily forgiven. Tell me why… why did you enslave and torture my people?"

"I didn't enslave and torture our people. I saved our people."

"Don't say 'our'." Allura said.

"Yes, I will say 'our', because they are our people. I am half Altean too." Lotor countered.

"You have no right..." Allura began.

"Children." Shiro growled.

Both Lotor and Allura stopped snipping at each other, a little ashamed to have an alien that has only seen about two dozen deca-phoebes lecture them on acting like children.

"Every single Altean that is located at the secondary colony is a hero and their names will be remembered for all time." Lotor said. "I know the names of each and every one of those brave Alteans who willingly gave of themselves for a way to end the war." He glanced between Shiro and Allura. "I'll guess that you don't believe me? But I can assure you that every single Altean on the second colony is there by choice and every single Altean giving of their quintessence is doing so willingly. Every Altean was explained the situation when they arrived at the second colony. If they were willing, they went into the quintessence tubes and would be looked after by the couple of Alteans who chose not to go into the quintessence tubes."

"What exactly were they told?" Shiro asked.

"That we needed quintessence to win the war to set them free. Quintessence given by a gifted Altean is one of the most pure forms of quintessence in this universe. The amount of energy that is produced from a willing Altean dwarfs any method of obtaining quintessence short of using the Komar. With only a couple hundred willing and gifted Alteans, we could have matched the Empire's quintessence reserves and defeated them. We never got to those numbers, of course. I could find about a hundred willing Alteans in the past ten thousand deca-phoebes." Lotor said. "They would spend most of their time in the tubes, given a cocktail of nutrients, pain medication, and anesthesia to allow them to sleep painlessly through the whole ordeal. They were even given time outside of the tubes every so often to aid in rebuilding muscle mass."

"That's all a lie! What about Romelle's brother?" Allura asked.

"Bandor? His was… a tragic case." Lotor admitted. "Our search was for gifted Alteans, and in all of the years that I ran the secondary colony, I never considered the effect that mutation would have on the Altean's drug resistances. Of course, I am no doctor, so the thought did not occur to me at the time. Bandor had a rare mutation that made the pain medication much less effective for him. Unfortunately, without the aid of pain medication… the process could be comparable to torture. When he was allowed out of the tube, he was very rightly terrified, and I don't blame him for running. Nor do I blame the Altean girl… Romelle? The Alteans on the primary colony are as far removed from the war as I could possibly make them. They do not understand the sacrifices that we, as leaders, have to make in a war."

"But to intentionally use the lives of..." Allura began.

"Over a hundred lives were used, yes. But through their sacrifices we have saved tens of thousands." Lotor said. "Sometimes, Princess, war comes down to simple mathematics."

Allura turned and walked away. She couldn't bear to look at him anymore. Everything he said made logical sense, and she was hating herself for seeing things from his point of view. Using all of those Alteans felt wrong, but if they were really all volunteers, then that could change everything. At that point would it really be considered any different from a person choosing to donate their blood or tissue for those in need? "Shiro, get the location of the two Altean colonies from Keith." She called back as she walked away. Lotor was absolutely right about one thing. The secondary colony had to be disbanded, and perhaps they could even begin to remove the Alteans from the primary colony and find an uninhabited planet to begin New Altea.

When Allura left, Shiro glanced at Lotor. "I would be happy to provide you with the location of the two colonies myself." Lotor said.

"I don't have the sort of experience working with you that the others have..." Shiro commented. "For me, it's like I've just met you, and I'm still trying to decide if I trust you." He paused, studying the face of the Galra Emperor. "But I think you were telling the truth just now, and I also believe that you do want to help the Alteans, even if you might have gone about that in a less than ideal way."

"War rarely leaves room for our ideals." Lotor said. "In an ideal world, Altea would have never been destroyed in the first place."

"I agree." Shiro replied. "Whether you are an ally or an enemy, I vastly prefer you to Zarkon or Haggar."

"I believe that was a compliment, so I'll say thank you." Lotor said. "So, the primary colony is going to be the most difficult to get to, as I'm sure that the two Blades will attest. I hid their colony as thoroughly as I could. Their location is..."

* * *

By the time that Allura made it back up to the bridge, Shiro was all ready contacting her. "Here is the location of the primary Altean colony." He said, sending her the information directly to her via her console.

"Wow. You were able to find Keith that quickly?"

"No, Princess. Emperor Lotor himself gave me the information." Shiro said. "And, yes, I double checked the information with Keith before calling you. Keith says that the location is accurate. He and Krolia are on their way to the bridge right now to provide you with a map through the time distortions."

"Thank you, Shiro." Allura said. They needed to get to the secondary colony, because according to Lotor there were Alteans there who had chosen to not give of their own quintessence, but to keep a watch over their fellows. If Lotor's story had truth in it, those Alteans would be able to vouch for him. Next, she opened up a direct line to Coran. "Coran, would you please call the nearest Coalition base and request for enough medical transports for about a hundred patients? The Castle itself could handle about a dozen, but we will need more."

"Yes, of course, Princess. Who are we transporting?" Coran asked.

"Lotor has woken up, and he has provided the location for the Altean colonies. We need the medical transports for the Alteans on the second colony." Allura answered.

"That is good news! I have been wanting to go there." Coran said. "But why all of the medical transports? I thought that they were killing the Alteans at that facility for their quintessence?"

"According to Lotor they are alive, but will need medical transport." Allura said. "Lotor… he… he said that the Alteans there are all volunteers."

"Oh… ah." Coran said, nodding. "I can see how that would change things. So are we hoping that a couple are still alive so that we can question them?"

"According to Lotor there are Alteans living there as caretakers, the Alteans who did not want to give of their quintessence. We can ask them while securing the medical needs of our people."

"Yes, of course, Princess. We'll do all we can to get them all out alive and healthy." Coran said. "I will contact the Coalition immediately. By your leave." And with that, Coran hung up.

Allura sighed in confusion and she fixed the location that had been given to her by Lo… Shiro and opened up a wormhole to that location. Once there, the ship was brought to a stop and did not proceed into the abyss any further. Without a detailed map, there was no way that the Castle of Lions would survive the trip through the multiple black holes.

About a minute later, Keith and his mother stepped onto the bridge. Without asking permission, Krolia stepped up to one of the consoles and began to input the information that the castle needed to find a safe way through the abyss.

"The most important thing is to stay on course." Keith said. "Also, about every couple of vargas, there is a flash of light that sweeps over the entire void. It's basically a time wave, and causes you to experience the past or even sometimes the future."

"Will it take us two deca-phoebes to get there like it did for you?" Allura asked.

"It took us two deca-phoebes because our vehicle was destroyed and forced us to spend a lot longer in there than we normally would. The travel time for the Castle of Lions should be a couple of vargas, stretched to maybe a phoebe."

"Is anyone keeping an eye on Lotor?" Allura asked.

"I am, Princess." Shiro replied.

"Ask him how long the trip is including the time dilation."

There was a brief pause before Shiro replied. "The Emperor says that from the outside perspective the trip takes about a movement if you do not drift from the safe path at all."

"That is acceptable. That will us plenty of time for the transports to get here." Allura said. "We are going in as soon as the path is clear."

"Everyone be prepared for the flashes of light. They will show you the past and the future." Keith said through the intercom.

"So… is there any way we can choose what we see?" Hunk asked. "Because I'll be honest, it would be nice to know how this all ends."

"You can't choose what you see, and when the time waves do show you the future, it is just tiny flashes of future events. Flashbacks to the past normally last much longer."

"Did you see your future the last time you went through?" Lance asked.

For a couple of seconds Keith didn't answer. "Only one of the future visions has come true so far. I saw myself fighting against Shiro's clone at the cloning facility, although I had no idea what it meant at the time. The other glimpses I got of the future were so small that I will not be able to recognize them until they actually happen."

"Even with this much distortion it is difficult to pull information out of the future." Krolia commented. "Pulling information out of the past is far easier by comparison."

"In the entire two years we spent traveling through this, my mother and I saw a combined total of maybe seven visions of the future." Keith said. "It's likely none of us will see anything of the future during this trip."

"The safe path is up on the main screen, Princess." Krolia said, putting her console up on the main screen so that Allura could see the safe path through the abyss. She waited a few more moments for Coran to come up to the bridge. The precision needed to guide the castle through the abyss would take more than a single pilot. In fact, as they started forward, all of the Paladins except for Shiro had made their way up to the bridge and had taken some of the controls.

Romelle rushed into the bridge as well. "I heard that we're going back to the colony." She said.

"Yes. It is time for us to see to the needs of our people." Coran said. Allura was too busy concentrating to answer.

"Does that mean that Lotor will soon be punished for his evil?" Romelle asked eagerly.

"No one is to be punished until we know the whole story." Coran said.

"What do you mean by that? The 'whole story'? I told you the true story! Lotor is evil and experimenting on our people! My parents and brother are dead because of him! The three of us saw the second colony! Do you doubt your Paladin? Do you doubt me, an Altean?" Romelle demanded.

"We saw what we saw, but we did not see everything." Keith reminded her. "You remember, right? We did not make it much further into the second colony than the doorstep. We did not speak to a single technician or doctor or even a janitor while we were there."

"We _saw_ enough." Romelle said. "We saw the state of that Altean in the tube… Why are you speaking like Lotor is innocent?"

"Innocent until proven guilty." All of the human Paladins said at once.

"What…?" Romelle began, confused.

"I believe what they mean to say is that we are not speaking of the Emperor as if he were innocent, but rather like one who has not been proven guilty of a crime." Coran said.

"He is guilty, I know it!" Romelle said.

"Silence, Romelle." Allura hissed suddenly. Everyone in the room stopped. "If Lotor were a citizen back on Altea then he would have the right to defend himself and to prove his innocence. Once we are at the second colony, the truth will become clear. Lotor has spoken in his defense, and has called the Alteans living there as his witnesses. If they collaborate his story, then he is no more guilty than a doctor drawing a donation of blood."

"I… don't understand. Does that mean that he claims that they… did so willingly?" Romelle asked. "But…!"

"Romelle, with all due respect, we are currently piloting a ship the size of a city through a field of black holes and distortions in space-time with literally zero margin of error." Pidge said. "So please be quiet and let the Princess concentrate so that we are not all killed by those black holes."

Romelle finally quieted down.

Allura was silently glad for Pidge's help. Navigating through the field was a precision operation and it required her total concentration. Thankfully, it only lasted a couple of vargas, and they were able to make their way inside safely. Twice on the journey they were interrupted by the waves of light and time that brought on visions. Allura nearly burst into tears when both visions were of her life before, on Altea, with her parents. The visions made her sad, but also made her hopeful because they were going to rescue more Alteans. It wouldn't be the same as old Altea, but it would be something.

* * *

After the last wave of light passed through the brig, both Shiro and Lotor recovered as quickly as they could, although one was able to recover quicker than the other. At every wave, Lotor seemed to be deeply effected by whatever vision he had been given. Both times Shiro had come to to find Lotor wrapped his arms around his own body as if to provide some amount of comfort, his eyes wide and his breath coming in small gasps of fear.

"I… always hated this part." Lotor admitted finally.

"They can't all be bad memories." Shiro said.

"You are wrong. They are all bad memories." Lotor said.

"Do you really expect me to believe that in living ten thousand deca-phoebes, and you have not one good memory?" Shiro asked, a little confused.

"A memory may at one time taste sweet, but with the passage of time turn into bitter ash." Lotor said. "My childhood was nothing but a string of disappointments, from the woman that people called my mother ignoring me so thoroughly that calling her mother was utterly pointless… to a father who barely wanted me… even less so after our immortality was discovered. Before my father discovered that he was immortal, I was a way to preserve his legacy and nothing more… after that… I was nothing more than a threat to his legacy. My time in exile? Every single thing that I took for myself was, in turn, taken from me… most often by my father. Planets destroyed, lovers executed, and my loyal soldiers all ripped away from me. And then… since I became the Emperor…?" Lotor growled angrily. "What was once the best moments of my life now have the most bitter taste of all. A reminder of what I gave up thanks to my own foolishness. By my own inability to open up to the very person I should have been the most open with."

There was a lot that Shiro wanted to unpack in the Emperor's statement, but for now his biggest concern was with Allura. "Did you love Allura?" He decided that since Lotor was in the mood for sharing he was better off being straightforward.

"Did I love her?" Lotor repeated. "There is no past tense for what I feel for her. I do love her. But that only makes everything all the more painful."

"If you do love her, then why did you try to kill her and the rest of Voltron?" Shiro asked.

"I have lost everything in my life that I have ever loved." Lotor replied coldly. "Loss like that does not get any easier with experience. I was utterly heartbroken and allowed the tainted quintessence of the rift to effect me when it normally would not have. I allowed myself to give into the hurt and the rage. I thought it would make me feel better. Ten thousand deca-phoebes of life, and it turns out that I'm an idiot. It didn't make me feel better. It has made me feel so much worse."

"You mentioned your mother." Shiro finally said.

Lotor said nothing.

"Your mother ignored you?"

"My mother, my real mother, was Honerva of Altea." Lotor said firmly. "I never met her for she died giving birth to me. But those that knew her told me that she was beautiful, kind, and a genius. The _thing_ that took Honerva's place after her death was not my mother, no matter what everyone told me. No matter how many times I cried out to that _thing_, it never even looked at me with anything except eyes full of hatred and contempt. Eventually, I learned my lesson. The witch might have the body of my mother, but she is not my mother."

"The witch… you mean that Haggar is physically your mother… and that she's Altean?" Shiro asked.

Lotor fell silent and did not respond to any more of Shiro's questions. But Shiro had enough to think about for the moment, like trying to figure out if he believed that the Emperor was lying about being in love with Allura. Unfortunately, Lotor was hurt enough emotionally that Shiro couldn't read him.

* * *

A few vargas later, and the Castle of Lions had made its way through the abyss and come out on the other side. Keith stood up from the controls and walked up to the front. "The larger planet holds the Altean's primary colony, but I would assume that you want to travel to the secondary colony first. It's on the planet's moon, just behind the planet from our point of view."

Allura was able to relax a little now that the castle was out of danger. "The secondary colony needs us more… and we need answers." She said, setting a course for the secondary colony that was just now appearing on the ship's sensors. She did have to admit that Lotor had hidden these colonies as well as he possibly could. The abyss kept most people away, and then you had to navigate all the way through the abyss before you were even able to detect that there were planets here. And, even now, none of the ship's sensors could pick up signs of life.

"Keith, are there any defenses that we need to worry about?" Allura asked.

"There were no defenses the last time we came." Keith said. "Lotor probably told them that the best thing to do would be to hide their presence rather than attempt to defend themselves, especially when the Alteans on the primary colony don't know how to use their own technology."

"We should take this slowly." Lance said. "They've only been used to the Emperor visiting, so the sight of a different ship might cause them to hide."

Allura nodded in agreement. "Of course. We'll go in, no weapons. No armor."

Keith nodded. "Pidge and Hunk? You should go with Allura and Coran."

"Sure." Hunk and Pidge said together.

Allura brought the Castle around slowly, and as they slowly approached the moon they were able to see the colony, which was more like a base. Nothing stopped them from docking with the colony. It took them a couple of minutes for the away party to get ready, in some cases stripped out of them armor and into their normal clothes. So have a decent amount of time had passed, the away party was finally ready to step out into the colony.

Allura went first, with Coran following closely on her heels, with Pidge and Hunk behind and on either side of them like an honor guard. Allura saw what Keith and Krolia had seen when they entered the colony. Tubes and tubes filled unconscious Alteans. Allura wanted to cry, scream, and pull them out of the tubes right away. But she forced herself to stop. If Lotor were telling the truth, doing so would cause far more harm than good. And, even if they were in danger, they did not have confirmation about the arrival of the medical transports yet.

They did what Keith had not, walking further into the facility. Finally, they turned a corner and saw an Altean a short distance away. She seemed to be terrified, holding a small pistol in her shaking hands. She was nearly an elder.

Allura and her whole group stopped in their tracks, and Allura slowly held up her hands to show that she had no weapons. "Hello. I don't mean you any harm." Allura said softly.

"Oh! You're Altean! I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. It's been so long since I left the first colony that you were probably not even born yet when I left. Are you with a new group with Prince Lotor? We were not expecting another group for another fifty deca-phoebes, at least."

"I'm sorry, but I am not here with Lotor." Allura said.

The Altean stared at her. "Who are you? I've never known anyone who refers to the Prince without proper address."

"You wouldn't know me. I am Princess Allura of Altea."

"Princess… Allura?" The Altean gasped. "But… our history lessons all say that the Altean royal family died with the destruction of Altea."

"I did not die. I was put into cryogenic sleep along with my retainer, Coran." Allura said, gesturing towards Coran. "And those two back there are humans of the planet Earth. They are Paladins of Voltron, and the other Paladins are back on my ship."

The Alteans did not immediately trust her, but Allura couldn't blame her. They had, after all, shown up out of nowhere. "How do I know you are telling the truth?"

"If she is lying, she is doing very well at it." Another Altean, a younger male, stepped up behind the female Altean. "You are the spitting image of our old pictures of the princess." He stepped forward, but not too far forward. "My apologies, Princess, but the arrival of your ship gave us quite a scare. The only contact that we've had with the outside world is through the news that Prince Lotor brings us. Where is the Prince? Has something happened to him?"

"I… a lot has happened." Allura admitted. "The Emperor has recently told us about your existence here."

"Emperor?" The female Altean asked. "Does that mean that Emperor Zarkon has died, and has Prince Lotor become the Emperor?" Allura nodded slowly. Both of the Alteans now had tears in their eyes. "Then that means that our exile is almost over!"

"I'm afraid… that I need to ask you some questions." Allura cut in, the two Alteans looked at her. "We have heard two different stories about what is going on at this facility, and I would like to know the truth from those who are actually here."

The two Alteans looked at each other. "Very well, follow us." The female said, leading Allura and her group even deeper into the facility.

The two Alteans lead them to some sort of lounge. There were a couple of Alteans in the room, but none of them inserted themselves into the conversation. "What would you like to know?"

"I suppose there's only one really important question." Allura said. "The Alteans that are having their quintessence… taken… are they doing that voluntarily?"

"Of course." The female said. "When I first came here, I spent my time in the tanks. I knew what I was doing."

"So you were not hurt from the process?" Allura asked.

"Being in the tanks is totally painless, just like going to sleep for any surgical procedure." The female said. "It takes a couple of phoebes to recover naturally when you get out, however. I was unable to stand for several movements. But I had the others here to help me with recovery."

"And how many are currently in the tanks?" Allura asked.

"One hundred and fifteen." The male answered. "With a staff of around 32."

"One last question. What do you think of Emperor Lotor?"

"Well… he's our savior." The male answered, honesty written on his face. "I don't imagine that there would be many Alteans surviving on the outside without his efforts. Most Alteans did not have the good fortune to be cryogenic-ally frozen in a palace." The female nodded in agreement. "With all due respect, Princess." He finished.

"No. I… understand." Allura said.

"What was that about?" Hunk asked.

"While I slept for ten thousand years, others were left to deal with the war in the only way they could, and did everything he could to preserve life." Allura put her hand up to her communicator. "Shiro?"

"Yes, Princess?"

"Release Emperor Lotor immediately. His story has been verified."

"Release…?!" The female gasped. "Princess, what has happened to the Emperor? Why is he in need of being released?"

"An Altean escaped from the primary colony and made her way here. She saw the Alteans in the tubes and thought that Emperor Lotor was torturing Alteans. She made her way to me and told me what she saw before the Emperor had the opportunity to reveal the truth about this place. I… initially sided with the Altean girl, but now I am here to learn the truth of the matter."

"We can't really blame Romelle. All those tanks do look bad without any sort of context." Coran commented.

"Romelle? Oh! Bandor!" The male reminded his female companion.

"Oh, yes. What a tragic case."

"Romelle blames Emperor Lotor for the death of her brother, and her story briefly turned us against the Emperor." Pidge said, and then they all noticed the look of devastation on Allura's face. "Princess?"

"I… I'm sorry. Do you have somewhere private where I can go be alone?" Allura asked. "I… need a minute."

"I suppose one of our quarters would be private enough." The female said. "I'll lead you to my room."

"Thank you." Allura whispered, falling into step behind the woman as she led them away and deeper into the facility.

"I don't think she can face Lotor yet." Hunk commented.

"I'd be pretty pissed if I were him." Pidge commented.

"I'm sorry, but we so rarely receive news and now it seems like the entire universe has changed without our knowing. What has happened?" The Alteans were now crowding around.

So Coran gave them a quick run down about what had happened since he and Princess Allura had woken up, with Pidge and Hunk sometimes inserting their own details into the telling. Especially the recent details about the rumors about the relationship that had grown between Emperor Lotor and Princess Allura.

"I think that most people expected them to get married for the sake of a royal alliance between the Galra Empire and the Voltron Coalition, but I think that they were genuinely falling in love." Hunk said.

"But after her siding with Romelle over the Emperor, who knows what will happen now." Coran said. "They might still marry for the sake of an alliance, but now they will marry without even the benefit of trust."

All talk ceased when the door opened and the Emperor himself stepped into the room.

"Prince… oh, I mean, Emperor Lotor!" Nearly all of the Alteans yelled in unison, clearly pleased to see that their savior was alive, even if he did not look well. For the first time any of them had ever seen, he was unable to meet their eyes.

"The project has failed." The Emperor said. "I'm sorry, but we have to shut down. There should be medical transports here soon to evacuate all of the Alteans in their weakened states."

"But, I don't understand." One of the Alteans spoke. "Are you not the Emperor now? Does that not mean that you have the power to end the war, so that we might be free?"

"Unfortunately the means to end this war peacefully is now forever out of my reach." Lotor said. "The only way we could have ended this war peacefully was to supply the Galra with all the quintessence they could ever require, but with the Sincline ship gone, that is now impossible. I made many grand promises to the Galra when I took the throne, promises of easy access to quintessence for everyone. Now that I cannot fulfill those promises, it is highly possible that I will not remain the Emperor for much longer."

All of the Alteans now seemed to be just as devastated as he was. After all, nearly all of them had given so much of themselves to end the war under Prince Lotor. One of the Alteans stepped forward and knelt, bowing to the Emperor. "The Galra might reject you, but you will always be our Prince and Savior."

The other Alteans nodded in agreement and bowed as well.

No one noticed that Allura had come back into the room to find all of the Alteans bowing to Lotor, claiming him as their prince. And here it was, all of her failures laid out before her. All of these people were hoping just as much as Lotor for his plans to be a success and now, thanks to her misjudgment, all of those plans had failed.

She was no princess to these people. She was going to be nothing more then the woman who utterly ruined everything their savior had worked towards. She had made a dreadful mistake, and the least she could do was offer something to take a minuscule step towards making it right. "Emperor Lotor." She called.

Everyone froze, the Alteans, her friends, and even Lotor himself as they watched her move closer to the Emperor. Once she made her way to him, looked him in the eyes briefly, before she knelt down alongside her fellow Alteans. For the first time in vargas, Lotor felt something… shock. "Princess?"

"I think that recent events have made it clear that I am not worthy of being the Princess of the new Alteans." Allura said. "A princess should listen to her subjects, to pass down judgments fairly and stemming from rational thought processes. The way that I handled the knowledge of the colony's existence was the exact opposite of that. I allowed my base emotions to dictate my actions when I should have listened to your side of the story. I should have reserved punishment, if punishment was necessary, until I knew for certain what the truth was. But I did not. And because of me, you have lost everything. I'm sure that you'll never be able to forgive me of that… because I don't know if I would be able to forgive that big of a quiznaking mess up." The Alteans gasped at their Princess' use of foul language. But Allura didn't care about her language anymore. All that mattered was speaking her heart, properly this time. "You are the worthy leader of the new Alteans, Prince Lotor. I offer my crown and throne to you."

"Is she proposing marriage?" Hunk asked Coran, who was watching with shock.

"No, this is not a proposal." Coran whispered. "She is offered to reject her birthright as the ruler of Altea and to pass that title to Lotor. No marriage required."

The Alteans understood, and Lotor understood what she was offering to him. And, for a moment, Lotor considered taking the offer as repayment for everything that she had taken from him. But, in his heart, he knew that he couldn't. He had come out of that fight far more damaged emotionally than any other fight he had been in during his long like, including the fight that ended with him killing his own father. But he was still in love with her. He couldn't forgive her. Not yet. That would take many phoebes, perhaps. And he could see from her expression that she was devastated by the truth, and that she had realized her mistake. For now, that was enough.

"I reject your offer, Princess Allura." Emperor Lotor said. "My plans have all failed and I have little more to offer these people besides my support and sympathy. Now that a peaceful ending to the war is out of reach, it is you, Princess, who now holds onto the hopes for every Altean on these two colonies. Voltron is now the only hope left for the universe to find peace."

Allura blinked as tears filled her eyes. Lotor smiled grimly and reached down for her hand. She took it and allowed him to lift her up off the ground.

"My time as the Emperor of the Galra will be over in mere movements." Lotor told her. "I can no longer offer you the powerful royal alliance that you once wished for, the union of Galra and Altea as a single unified kingdom. But if you truly feel that I would be a worthy ruler, I would offer myself to you."

"Now _that_ was a proposal." Coran whispered to the Paladins.

Allura wanted to cry even harder. Their relationship had been damaged by recent events, but she was so happy to learn that he did not consider them to be damaged beyond all repair. "I believe that a long engagement would be best, so that we may learn how to trust one another again. But I accept your offer, Lotor. I would be happy to one day become your queen."

"And I would be happy to be yours. Not an Emperor, but as your Prince Consort." Lotor replied.

Despite their recent heartbreak, all of the Alteans clapped happily as Lotor slowly drew Allura closer and placed a soft, chaste kiss on her lips.

* * *

The Voltron party slowly made their way back to the Castle, Pidge and Hunk still a little shocked from the show they'd just seen.

When they boarded the Castle, it seemed that everyone was on the bridge, even Shiro who had come up to the bridge after releasing Lotor on Princess Allura's orders. "How did everything go?" Keith asked.

"I'm assuming that it went well because Allura called me to release Lotor." Shiro said.

"The Princess _released_ that monster?!" Romelle screamed.

"We _met_ with the Alteans on the base." Pidge pointed out. "They all backed up Lotor's story. They seemed to be just as invested in his plan succeeding as Lotor was. Hell, when Lotor told them that he was probably not going to be the Emperor for much longer, they immediately made him nobility of Altea."

"And that's not all. Allura was devastated to learn the truth. She even offered to step down as the heir to the throne of Altea and allow Lotor to take her place as the new ruler of Altea." Hunk said.

Everyone started talking at once. Shiro called out over everyone. "Enough! Allura might not be the Princess anymore, but she is still a Paladin of Voltron and still a vital part of our team. This changes nothing."

"She's still a Princess. Emperor Lotor refused." Coran said. "But then Emperor Lotor proposed marriage to Princess Allura, and she accepted that."

"So, yeah, the two of them are engaged now." Hunk said.

"What? Marriage?!" Lance gasped.

"I would not presume to say that I know the Princess' mind. But I believe that both she and Emperor Lotor want what's best for the Alteans. She might believe that being married would help with that, especially since that would give Lotor a great deal of power as the Prince Consort."

"What is a Prince Consort? Why not a King?" Hunk asked.

"Well..." Coran started to explain. "When it comes to the amount of power that royals have, the King typically has more power than the Queen. So the title is typically used when the hereditary monarch is female. Allura is the monarch, and even if she marries Emperor Lotor most decisions will still fall to her instead of Emperor Lotor. So to keep him from having a higher rank than her, he'll be given the title of Prince Consort instead. It just means that he's married to a Queen, but he's not a King."

"You're all mad!" Romelle yelled, glaring around the room. "Why would the Princess marry him? He..."

"That's enough, Romelle." Another voice said firmly. Allura had arrived, arm in arm with Lotor. The Paladins drew out their bayards. Allura had not given them the order, but they could tell from the look on the Princess' face that she was not pleased with Romelle. One word from Allura, and Romelle would take up residence in the Emperor's former cell. "There will be no punishment for the things that you have said until this moment, even if the slander that you made against the Emperor has now ended any chance that we had of ending this war peacefully, not to mention caused a great deal of pain for the two of us and nearly killed the Emperor of the most powerful empire in the universe. You reported to me what you believed to be the truth, and that is not worthy of punishment. However, we know the truth now, so I will not tolerate any more slander against my future husband."

For a moment, Romelle only gaped, open-mouthed, at Allura. "_He killed my brother._" She said, slowly and clearly.

Allura silently walked over and handed a holo-tablet to Romelle. Romelle took it and looked at the contents. It was the agreement that Bandor, and every single one of the Alteans, had signed when they arrived at the second colony and choose to go into the tanks. That they were doing so of their own free will. It was signed in Bandor's hand. "That will be all."

Romelle's grip tightened on the holo-tablet before she turned on her heel and stormed off the bridge.

"I'm not sure if she's ever going to be able to forgive you." Allura commented to Lotor.

"I wouldn't blame her if she never did." Lotor said. "Losing those you love… is a pain that never really goes away."

"We'll stay inside the abyss for one night, and then we will start to leave in the morning." Allura said. "Everyone is dismissed for the rest of the day. I need to speak to Lotor alone now." She began to lead Lotor out of the room when Coran spoke up and stopped her.

"With all due respect, Princess… there are many rules that you are not allowed to be alone with the Emperor now that you are to be married." Coran said. "If I could accompany you…?"

"No. The words that must pass between Lotor and I are for our ears only." Allura said. "Except for these words, perhaps." She turned to face Lotor. "What has happened was my fault, and my fault alone. Lotor has chosen to turn down my offer to take my throne from me, but I want to make it perfectly clear that he is a worthy ruler for New Altea. When we marry, he is not to be just a mere Prince Consort. He will be the King, with all of the power and privileges that implies."

"As you wish, Princess." Shiro said, with a small bow. It took a little more time for the other Paladins to nod in agreement. Coran accepted Allura's words almost as soon as he uttered them.

"I will speak to Lotor now." Allura said, taking his arm again and leading him down the hallway and towards the private chambers that contained their rooms. Lotor had his own room on the Castle, of course, but Allura led him to her own room.

She opened the door and led him inside, turning on the lights and shutting and locking the door behind her. "Coran is right. This is not exactly proper behavior for betrothed royals." Lotor commented.

"I need to speak my mind, and I want for you to be the only one who knows it." Allura said. "And I want to know your mind in return. Lotor? I am so happy with your proposal. At the moment that I learned the truth, it felt like my heart had died and been reborn again, and I fell in love with you all over again. But I'll understand if you do not feel the same way. You were so wronged by me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make up for it, even if I live a thousand deca-phoebes."

Finally, Lotor's eyes softened. "Don't shoulder the blame for this by yourself." He said. "I am partially to blame myself. If I had not been so set in my ways of never telling anyone about, or thinking about, the colony and just told you the truth as soon as I knew you were trustworthy, all of this could have been avoided. I may have lived for ten thousand deca-phoebes, but sometimes I feel like I'm just as foolish as anyone else."

"Far less foolish than me." Allura said. "I should have listened to you. And now, thanks to me, the war will continue. There will be more death before this is all over. And you… what will happen to your Empire now?"

"As soon as we leave the abyss tomorrow, I will send a message to the capital ship." Lotor said. "I'm not going to wait to be deposed. Being deposed in the Galra culture means being murdered. So I will apologize and voluntarily step down from the position of Emperor." He sighed. "It is highly likely that one of Zarkon's generals will jump at the chance and become the new Emperor to a violent Empire. This is exactly what I wanted to stop by becoming Emperor myself… This will come down to Voltron."

Allura nodded grimly. "I suppose what I really want to know is… do you still feel some love for me, despite my mistake? You said before our fight that your feelings are true. Are they still true?"

Lotor moved closer to her, raising a hand and gently cupping her cheek, gently gliding his fingers across her cheek. "I did not lie back then, and I will not lie now. I do still love you, Allura. But it will take some time before I am able to forgive you."

"I do not ask for your forgiveness right now." Allura said, closing her eyes and reaching up to gently press his palm more firmly into her cheek, guiding his fingers so they glided along the markings just under her eyes, a sensitive place for any Altean. "I only ask for the opportunity to spend the rest of my life striving for your forgiveness."

"It won't take that long, my love." Lotor whispered against her ear. He gently kissed the lobe of her ear. Allura sighed in happiness at the contact as his lips drifted down from her ear, across her cheek before finally reaching her lips.

Their first real kiss by the Sincline ships had felt like an eternity ago, and their kiss among the Alteans hardly counted as little more than a press of their lips. This time it felt like coming home again. Allura wrapped her arms around his neck, using her chameleon abilities to grow slightly taller so that she could fit better against his body.

"I love you, Lotor. And I will spend the rest of my life proving it to you." Allura whispered against his lips when they broke the kiss. She dug her fingers into his silky long hair, pulling him back down to her for another kiss. This kiss was more desperate then their previous ones, as if they were begging for healing from their partner. Allura needed no prompting to allow his tongue to meet hers in a tender frenzy. Their soft gasps and needy moans swallowed by the kiss.

Without thinking about it, her hands drifted to his face, caressing the place where his Altean marking once burned on his face with the glow of his quintessence. To her pleasure, he reacted to the contact just as an Altean would. The marking were still on his face, they just blended into the tone of his skin too well for them to be visible when they were not glowing. He truly was Altean.

Allura pulled away from him, smiling at the look on his face as she stimulated the markings on his face. They were just slightly visible now with the slight blush on his face. "You are a true Altean." She told him.

They stopped, and Lotor gazed at her, confused. "I understand why you are saying this, but I know that it's not true. If I were a true Altean, I could have passed the trials on Oriande."

"I think that the universe didn't want you to pass because it didn't want to create a god, not because of your inherent nature." Allura said. "If you had an Alchemist's control over the quintessence within your own body, you might be able to ascend."

Lotor knew, of course, about the abnormally large amount of quintessence that he had in his body. It was kind of hard not to notice that you seemed to be immortal after you turn ten thousand deca-phoebes old when the average Galra lived for only a hundred. But him? A god? Perish the thought!

"There's no need to make jokes at my expense right now, Allura." Lotor told her.

"I'm not joking." Allura said. "When I pulled you out of the rift, I attempted to heal you by pulling the poisoned rift quintessence out of your body. You have more quintessence inside your body than a whole Balmera."

"And what of the poisoned rift quintessence?" Lotor asked.

"It was so minuscule compared to the amount of quintessence that you all ready held that it was not a danger to you." Allura said. "I left it inside you, but I could remove it if you want."

"I would like it out… but later." Lotor said. "It was not enough to corrupt me like it did my parents, but it was enough to change me if I let it. I don't ever want to change like that again."

"Speaking of your parents..." Allura began. "If there is one thing that I regret more than any other, it's what I said before the fight started. I won't say it again to remind you. I will never speak those awful words again." Lotor did not need her to elaborate. He knew exactly what words she was speaking of. When she said that he was just like his father. The words that had utterly broken him. "Never again. They were words spoken in pain and heartbreak, and I know they are not true at all."

"I know exactly how you feel about saying words that you did not mean. I did not mean what I said in that fight. About how I wanted to erase you and your father from the pages of history. I'd never do that. I respect the sort of ruler that King Alfor was, and I love you too much to erase either of you. If I had… killed you in my rage..." He paused. "I would have taken my own life not long after you left for the afterlife. And that is the truth."

"I forgive you." Allura whispered against his lips just before she kissed him.

He did not reply in kind in regards towards what she had said, but she understood why he couldn't forgive her for what she said yet. She had specifically targeted his weakest point and exploited it ruthlessly. Perhaps in time he would be ready to forgive her for what she said, but not yet.

"I want to make things right between us. We will make things right between us. We just need some more time." Lotor commented against her lips when she pulled away from him.

"I am willing to wait as long as it takes." Allura said.

* * *

And it did take a lot of time. Their engagement lasted nearly two deca-phoebes before they were finally able to wed. For it was not merely the lingering issues that remained between them that held them apart, but also the goings on in the universe.

The very next morning they had exited the abyss to find dozens of medical transports awaiting them. Lotor had sent his message out to Galra command relinquishing his claim to the throne, and without taking a moment to mourn the loss of his title he set right back to work. They had to manage all of these medical transports going through one of the most dangerous sections of the universe.

They took it slowly and carefully, and within two phoebes (including the time dilation effect of the abyss) all of the ailing Alteans had been moved to Olkarion where they would begin their recovery. Every single Altean was brought out of the tanks without an issue and they were on their way to recovery.

Once all of those Alteans were safe, Lotor and Allura finally made the trip to the larger primary colony. The situation was explained to the community leaders, and they had a discussion about whether or not to shut down the colony and move all of the Alteans to a new homeworld.

It was eventually decided that they would stay where they were for the moment, since it was safe from the Galra. They would wait until a new homeworld had been found. Hopefully it would be somewhere far enough outside of Galra space that it would give the Alteans time to set up their defenses.

One of the most shocking things happened about three phoebes after Lotor gave up the Galran throne. About three battle cruisers had suddenly appeared in the skies of Olkarion, but before Voltron could intercept them, they broadcast a message of peace.

Three cruisers full of Galra had shown up on the Coalition's doorstep. The cruisers were all filled with Galra who had come to appreciate Lotor's rule more than Zarkon's or the bloodthirsty tyrant who had taken the Kral Zera after Lotor. They didn't mind that Lotor could not fulfill his lofty promises about unlimited quintessence for everyone, they were just tired of war and conquering and longed for a life of peace. Lotor was happy to take them, but impressed upon them all the fact that he was no longer any sort of nobility within the Galra Empire and that he was soon to marry an Altean to to become the King of the Alteans. If they wanted to serve under him, they needed to be willing to live and work alongside the Alteans and the other multitude of species that made up the larger Voltron Coalition. The Galra agreed and the Voltron Coalition grew larger that day.

It was around that same time that Lotor finally voiced his forgiveness for what Allura had done. Allura was so happy to have his forgiveness after so long that she invited Lotor into her room for the first time that night. They did not reach the point of mating that night, because every time they got close both of them could hear Coran's warnings echoing in their minds. But it was still a magical night filled with soft and needy kisses, tentative touches, and soft glances exchanged between the two of them.

Voltron split its time between fighting the newly-turned violent Galra empire and searching for a new planet to hold New Altea. It had to be somewhere outside of the Galra empire to protect the Alteans while they worked on building defenses for the new planet. They were able to find a planet after a deca-phoebe of looking, which happened to end up in the same galactic neighborhood as Earth since that was about the only place in the universe completely free of the Galra.

The state of the human space program meant that they were still out of reach of their new neighbors, which Shiro had said was still a good thing as the human space program was still controlled by the military. Shiro himself was planning to go back to Earth eventually and to help humans bring themselves to the galactic stage peacefully, and to ask them to officially join the Voltron Coalition.

The new planet was settled and the entire next deca-phoebe was dedicated to building New Altea. The capital was built around the grounded Castle of Lions and that was all they needed for the moment. Some Alteans were sure to want to live outside the Capital, and they would get assistance for the move, but the Voltron Coalition had to focus on what they could do right now. Thankfully, with major help from the Olkari, the capital was built within a year, with defenses stationed around the planet.

And then, finally, came the royal wedding and the coronation of the new King and Queen of New Altea. The ceremony was almost entirely taken from Altean traditions. Lotor didn't mind. He had always felt a deeper draw to the Altean part of himself rather than the Galra. Coran wept silently as he stood in the place that normally would have occupied King Alfor were he here. The other four Paladins stood as Allura's honorguard, with an equal number of Blades standing as Lotor's honorguard. Shiro, no longer a Paladin, but holding the unofficial position as captain of the royal guard stood vigilant in his place behind the future King.

There had been a couple of Alteans living on the colony who were qualified to perform marriage rites that had been passed down from ten thousand years ago, and Allura choose one of them to perform the ceremony, which he did so flawlessly. The words he spoke were just the same as the hollowed words that she remembered attending a couple of bonding ceremonies on Altea all those years ago. She couldn't help but feel a little giddy as the man tied the Bond Ribbon around her and Lotor's wrists and clasped hands, but she somehow was able to keep herself contained.

After they kissed to seal their union, two more Alteans moved forward, carrying the ornate ceremonial crowns, which were placed on Lotor and Allura's heads and announced with their new titles to those gathered. "Introducing, their Royal Majesties, King Lotor and Queen Allura, Sovereign Rules of New Altea."

While everyone else went to go enjoy the party that was provided for by the Castle for their guests, newly-weds Lotor and Allura had their own plans. Almost every single detail about their wedding was Altean, but one small piece of Galra bonding ceremonies had appealed to the both of them. So instead of following the Altean custom of spending the first few hours of their marriage in silent meditation, they were following a Galra tradition with a name that Allura was utterly unable to pronounce which Lotor said roughly translated into common as "The Time of the Bond."

In a Galra ceremony, which actually involved a small amount of violence in the form of a ceremonial fight between bride and bridegroom, the two newly bonded were expected to care for each other in the aftermath. So the newly-weds were left in complete privacy for an entire quintant to increase the bond they had with each other. The only tiny thread of contact that they had with the outside world during this time were their family members leaving food outside the door of their private sanctuary for them. Other than that, it was a time entirely devoted to each other. Galra normally used this time to care for each other's wounds and to mate repeatedly.

Lotor and Allura had no wounds to care for, but they still had plenty of things to do. Everyone had been told to stay away from their chambers for the next quintant, with the exception of their honorguard, who was explicitly told to leave food for them outside their chambers but under no circumstance to come inside.

* * *

(Sexy times used to be here. If you still want sexy times, please travel to AO3.)

* * *

By the time it was over and they returned to the official wedding party which had continued over the last quintant and would continue for another whole movement, they were in equal parts exhausted and yet utterly satisfied. It was very clear to everyone present that the Time of Bonding had happened just as it should.

Shiro was waiting to escort the two of them back to the party where they would receive their wedding gifts from their guests. "Did you enjoy your honeymoon?" He asked with a smile.

"What is a honeymoon?" Lotor asked, confused.

Allura, who had heard about this earth custom from her Paladins before the wedding, answered. "It is the human name for the Time of Bonding between newly wed humans."

"It is a very similar concept." Shiro said. "A time for the two newly weds to spend time together before they start on the rest of their lives together. Only the privacy is not so strictly enforced and it tends to last longer."

"Well, that does sound delightful." Allura said. "But I'm afraid that neither Lotor nor I can indulge in each other as long as that. The war will not stop for our marriage and New Altea needs us."

"But you did get to indulge." Shiro pointed out, a small knowing grin on his face. "You're glowing, both of you. Literally."

"It'll fade in a varga or two." Allura said without embarrassment. Everyone knew what had happened, so there was no need to hide the fact.

As Shiro began to lead them back to the party, he asked. "So how long until we know if New Altea will have a new prince or princess?"

"It is..." Lotor began. "Incredibly unlikely that I will ever be able to sire children due to my mixed heritage." He had known since he was very young that hybrids were infertile. The Galra were capable of mating with and siring children across many different species across the universe, but so far no Galra hybrid had been able to sire children. He had told Allura about this early on in their engagement and, to his shock, she was completely amicable.

"_To be honest," Allura had said. "I had always found the idea of bearing heirs to be the least desirable part of being the future Queen. Having children has never appealed to me. I do not mind that you are infertile. We can always find a worthy successor among our subjects rather than simply uplifting a child on right of birth alone."_

A few minutes later, and they rejoined the party, which technically had not stopped at all. As a royal wedding, the festivities would carry on for quite some time. Now it was time for the ranking members of the Voltron Coalition and the Alteans to present their gifts to the new King and Queen. The Alteans would also be giving their fealty while the Coalition would officially recognize New Altea as a member of their resistance.

Firstly, Shiro pledged himself to the protection of the King and Queen. But then the promise was made irrelevant when Allura removed him from his unofficial Captain of the Guard position and offered to make him the Ambassador to Earth on behalf of the Voltron Coalition. Shiro stared in shock for a few moments before he happily accepted. He had been meaning to go back to Earth, but had gotten swept up with things on New Altea. To be finally going back to help with the war was a dream come true.

And then the other four Paladins had come forward and pledged their continued support against the Galra Empire. Allura knew from private conversations with them that they would stay until the end of the War, but then they all wanted to go back home to Earth. She didn't blame them of this desire and was secretly thinking that if the war did not end within ten deca-phoebes, she would relieve them and send them home anyway. Keith was the only exception to that. The only family he had left was his mother, Krolia, who was with the Blade of Marmora and the Galra who had left the Empire to stay with Lotor. Keith would be staying, and would most likely lead an entirely new team of Paladins.

And then came the Alteans. Allura was pleased to see that the governor who had led the colony stepped forward with a few Alteans at his back. Several Alteans who had been a part of the experiments on the secondary colony. They looked a little thin and were not as strong as Alteans should be, but they seemed to be alert and healthy.

"Your Majesties." The Governor said with a bow. "I am afraid to admit that our gift for your wedding is for our Queen, although we feel that you, King Lotor, will appreciate it as well." He gestured to the Alteans behind him, and they pushed forward a hover cart that was loaded with three containers full of glowing quintessence. Lotor and Allura watched, confused. "After we had used the quintessence that we had gathered to aid in the recovery of our fellow Alteans, we had some left over. Quintessence that had once belonged to Alteans who are no longer with us. This is but a tiny amount of that, but it is a special amount. Thanks to information that we've received from King Lotor over the years, we know that this is the amount of quintessence needed to grant functional immortality to a single person." Now everyone in the room understood the nature of the gift and gasped in shock. "The myths of Old Altea are filled with stories of the tragic love between mortal and immortal. We would grant you this gift… eternity." The governor finished with a bow.

"This is… a priceless gift." Allura gasped. _And one that is not to be taken lightly. _She thought to herself privately.

The rest of the gifts preceded as normal.

* * *

So that evening, Lotor and Allura returned to their private chamber, although this time, Allura really didn't have sex on her mind. Her thoughts kept drifting to the quintessence that had been gifted to her.

_The gift of immortality._

The most desired gift of all, and yet Allura was afraid.

Lotor stepped into the room to find her gazing at the containers that she had brought up to the room. "What are you thinking, love?" He asked.

"I know how much you want me to accept this gift." Allura said. His death was not something that Allura worried about with regularity. Barring unfortunate circumstances, Lotor was immortal. But how often did he think about her death. Alteans were a very long-lived species. She could see nearly a thousand deca-phoebes as a sacred Altean, but there would be no way, except the use of quintessence, for Allura to match Lotor's limitless lifespan. "And a part of me, the part that fears my own mortality, wants to accept it. But another part of me is scared."

"Scared?" Lotor asked.

"Of living forever. Of losing everyone I love… except for you. You are the man I love, Lotor, but do I have the strength to watch everyone else die around me while I stay alive and young for all time?"

"It is hard." Lotor said. "And it never gets easy. I have lived for ten thousand deca-phoebes, and I have lost so many friends along the way. And the deca-phoebes can become very long." He paused thoughtfully. "But I think that I could live another thousand times my current life if I could have someone at my side through it."

"Do you regret your immortality?" Allura asked.

Lotor sat on the bed next to her, staring quietly into the distance. "I have never thought about whether I regret being immortal or not. I was never given the choice. I was simply born this way and had to come to accept that I would endure until the end of the universe itself." He reached up, his fingers caressing her cheek. "Allura? Allow me to be a selfish bastard and speak my mind openly?" She looked at him and nodded. "I do want for you to accept this gift. I want you by my side… always."

"What of our kingdom?" Allura asked. "Do you really think that having immortal rulers is the best idea? Rulers who never die or leave the throne?" She asked.

"Who said anything about never leaving the throne?" Lotor asked. "We both know that I'm immortal, but we've all ready discussed picking a worthy successor among our people when the time comes. Be it in a thousand or ten thousand deca-phoebes, we will become bored with ruling. Then we can leave everything behind and explore the universe together. See how far we can travel in our immortal lives."

Allura had to admit the idea of exploring the universe for the rest of time with Lotor was an appealing one. It could take the edge off of being immortal. There was so much to see in the universe… how could one become bored with it? And if a time came when they saw everything there was to see in this universe, by that time, technology might have advanced to the point of safe travel between different universes. They could travel to another universe entirely and an entire universe of new sights.

"Step back, please." Allura said. Lotor nodded, reading her thoughts through her eyes. He stood up from the bed and took several steps back until his back was pressed against the wall. Allura gathered the containers closer to herself and opened them one by one, absorbing the pure quintessence into her body. By the time the third one had been drained, she could feel the subtle change in her body. It was almost as if she could feel her own passage through time slow to a crawl and then stop, persevering her as she was for all time. She smiled up at Lotor. "It's done. I can feel it."

"How does it feel?" Lotor asked.

"Like time no longer has a grip on me." Allura said. "But I suppose you wouldn't understand that answer, if you have never felt the grip of time."

"No. I suppose not." Lotor said. He moved closer to her now, his eyes tracing her glowing Altean markings. "Forever is a scary thing, Allura. But not so scary together."

* * *

(One Thousand Years Later)

The universe seemed to change for Allura in a blink of an eye. The War had lasted longer than her Earth Paladins, even Keith though he had stayed on as the Paladin of the Black Lion for fifty deca-phoebes. Eventually they had all left and moved on, allowing others to take over the Lions. Even Allura had stepped down as being pilot of the Blue Lion only a few years into her marriage.

She had kept in touch with all of them after they left. Had attended their marriages. Seen their children and grandchildren. And, most sorrowfully of all, had attended all of their funerals.

But, eventually, the war was won. It was won on the backs and the blood of everyone who stood up against the Galra Empire. Some of the Galra had wanted Lotor to come back as their Emperor, but he refused. He was happy enough as the King of Altea and had long since stopped feeling any desire to rule over his father's former Empire. The Galra installed a new Emperor, one who was just as tired of war as the rest of his people, and peace was, at least restored to the universe.

And so time passed, and much more time passed. It wasn't until her loyal Coran passed away that Allura became aware of how much time was passing. Time had no hold over her, and it slipped through her fingers like water. And for the first time, she truly regretted her immortality.

Lotor understood her pain completely, having felt the sorrow of losing those he loved over and over and over again over his long life. He held her close as she sobbed, mourning the last reminder of the old Altea, the Altea that she had been born on, and mourning the loss of her dearest friend. He assured her with every breath that he was still there with her, that he would never leave her. That eternity was meant to be faced together.

The pain would come again and again over the long years. Lotor and Allura reminded young while those around them grew old and died. And a thousand deca-phoebes later, they were treated more as god and goddess and less like a King and Queen. And, by that point, they were both tired of it.

They both felt supremely disconnected from the people of New Altea. They had friends there, sure, but those that they had _loved_ were long gone. Despite Allura's efforts to kept track of family lines, the descendants of her friends were as strangers to her. So they both agreed. There was no reason for them to stay any longer.

They shocked their citizens (worshipers) one quintant when they suddenly announced that not only were they stepping down from the throne, but they were leaving. They had hand picked the man who would be taking over for them, a Duke in their court, and took off in a large ship before the sun had even set that day.

As they cleared the atmosphere and began their journey into deep space, Allura couldn't help but feel a little relieved. She had never wanted to be treated as a goddess and she wished they had left sooner before the worship started.

She walked onto the bridge to find Lotor gazing at the ship's navigational hologram. "Where are we going first?" Allura asked.

Lotor shrugged. "I am rather fond of the idea of picking a star at random and going there." He said.

"So you've done this before?" Allura asked, wrapping her arms around him.

Lotor laughed a little. She knew very well that he had done this before. They had talked a few times about their inevitable eternal trip around the universe. "Yes, but it has always been at my whim. Where does your whim lead you, my love?"

Allura smiled. She turned to look out the front window to the vast expanse of space waiting for her. Her eye found a star that seemed to grow dimmer and brighter even without the effect of an atmosphere disturbing the light. Certainly a pulsar. She pointed at it. "That one." She said.

"A direction that I've yet to go. How exciting." Lotor said, fixing that point into the ship's navigational computers. And so their eternal trip began.

Over the millennia, legends would be told of the immortal lovers, traveling from one end of the universe to the other on little more than a whim. Although they certainly did not keep to themselves. Every once in a while, if someone that they had interesting conversations with found them in their wanderings, they would allow that person to join them on their journey for however many years that person was willing to give.

Outlandish stories were told about them as their true origins were forgotten to time, tales made all the more fabulous every time someone turned up in a market who claimed to have spent time with them. Only a few things were truly known: they were not of the same species, they seemed to be truly immortal judging from their detachment from the goings on in the universe, and while the woman claimed to have once been a queen, the male claimed to have been Emperor and King both.

And they were very in love with each other. The occasional former companion, when asked about their time with the immortal lovers, most often spoke of their devotion to their partner. Although they enjoyed the company of their various guests, they could most often be found together, standing together in less used areas of the ship, speaking to each other in a language that had long since died out. Some even spoke of catching them in the act of mating in various parts of the ship, although the guests were always polite when this happened, knowing that the ship was theirs and they were just along for the ride.

No children were ever seen in the ship, despite that. Many people simply assumed that being childless was a side effect of their immortality.

Lotor and Allura might have detached themselves from the universe, but they were still happy together. They still loved each other, they still found joy in taking in the occasional companion, and they had all the time in the universe for the two of them.

Literally… all the time in the universe.

And they did have that time. They flew in their starship together until the end of time itself.

* * *

**LES: This is what happens when you conceive of a one shot that is much bigger than you originally intended, and then halfway through you decide that giving up is for wimps and keep it to one chapter. I think this might be my longest one shot ever. (Double Checks). Yep. It is more than twice the size of my previous record holder "The Impossible Bender" with a little over 8,000 words. And to my My Hero fans… I know I promised that I would work on the mega chapter during my break. But I made the deadly mistake of watching seasons 5 and 6 of Voltron and this story took over my mind completely. I had to excise it. Good news, though. I am technically still in my break. Most of this story has been written in the weeks leading up to Shadowbringers. So I have time to work on my My Hero stories too. But this monster had to get out of my brain. I hope you'll forgive me. If you are not one of my My Hero fans, then I just hope that you enjoy this Lotura Feelings vomit. And, yes… the whole taking companions thing was inspired by Doctor Who.**


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